It’s Royal Rumble season, which means it’s almost WrestleMania season. Thanks to the WWE Network, you can go back and watch all the old Royal Rumble pay per views and matches, and in that spirit, I decided to rank the winners. We’ve already ranked the bottom three, so if you’re interested, go back and check them out here, here and here. I’ll be ranking the winners every day until the 2015 Royal Rumble on January 25th. Now, in the words of Goldberg, let’s see who’s next!

19. Sheamus – 2012 Royal Rumble

I don’t really have a set formula that I’m using to judge the winners of the Royal Rumble. The main reason for that is because winning the Royal Rumble has meant many different things over the years. It has ranged from Big John Studd winning and being a special guest referee at the following WrestleMania to Ric Flair winning and actually winning the World Title. Since the victories themselves have signified such vastly different things, I decided to rank the winners based mostly on how much I like the character, and how important that character was/is to the wrestling industry. So if you’re a huge Hacksaw Jim Duggan fan and feel like he shouldn’t be 21st on this list, you’re not wrong, but just know that a mentally handicapped patriot should’ve been a character that lasted one night.

Now onto Sheamus. There are two reasons Sheamus ranked so low for me: 1. the rest of this last is insanely stacked and 2. his match with Daniel Bryan at the following WrestleMania is one of the biggest FU’s to fans I’ve ever witnessed. If you don’t remember their match for the World Heavyweight Championship, here it is, IN IT’S ENTIERITY.

I still can’t watch that video without getting incredibly angry. The only silver lining is that this injustice gave the YES movement a huge jolt, and two years later Daniel Bryan would be standing tall as the champion at WrestleMania XXX (not a porno). As for our buddy Sheamus, if he’s not a bad guy, I’m not interested. He stars in the Be A Star anti bullying campaigns but then bullies everyone else on TV, except its OK because he’s a good guy. He doesn’t have one identifiable trait, unless you’re someone who never leaves the house because you’re afraid of the sun. His Royal Rumble win was impressive, but so was everyone else’s on the list. His character just doesn’t stack up to the other big names who have won it. He came in at #22, which isn’t too bad considering other wrestlers have won entering later, and the only man he eliminated was the final guy in his way, Chris Jericho. In time, Sheamus might move up on this list, but for now, he’s right where he belongs at #19.

– Ryan